backyardmissionary

On Sunday night I fired off an email to the editor of the West Australian newspaper. I was angry at the preferential treatment outlaw bikers get over ordinary law abiding citizens.
Basically a well known biker died recently and at the funeral the bikers were refusing to wear helmets and stop for red lights as a […]

This week I start my role as a youth minisry coach with the Baptist churches of WA working 12 hours a week. My job is simply to meet with local youth pastors and help them be more effective in their roles.
Its not about influencing them to be like me or to buy into my psycho […]

I’m no fan, but I have been impressed with his gutsy efforts over the last week - even stayed up late to watch him!
We’ve invited a few of the neighbours round to watch the final at 5.00pm today. Tnnis starts at 5.00 or so and we’ll order pizza for 6.00, if its not all over […]

Today I woke up and rather than looking out the window, seeing a warm sunny day and launching the boat I said to Danelle that I’d like to ‘go to church’.
That’s a tad unusual for me as I am not part of any Sunday church these days. (Our church meets on a Monday night.) […]

I had a really good conversation today with both Ross Clifford and Phillip Johnson the two authors of Jesus and The Gods of the New Age.
They were both very helpful in explaining how to connect with people at the upcoming healing festival. After 13 years of involvement in this field they really did have some […]

A few days ago we picked up a whole stack of 35 mm slides from my parents of my pre - teen years and the time we spent in Nth Ireland.
Danelle has been sorting thru them and we have been projecting them on the wall over the last few nights.

We have both observed something […]

About 13 years ago now I was serving in my final year of youth minstry at Scarborough Baptist Church and some of the young guys in the church decided to play a rather inappropriate practical joke on Danelle and I. It’s a long story and would sound pretty lame if I tried to describe it […]

I’ve started doing some work on this whole area of ethics and find it quite invigorating. As one who likes to think and enjoys intellectual challenge the area of ethics definitely does that.
I’m in the process of exploring various ethical frameworks and overviews as I sense that getting a hold of the different approaches will […]

A few days ago I spotted a sign on the local Supa Valu notice board advertising a ‘healing festival’ to be held in the local area over the weekend of Feb 19 & 20. There are over 40 different forms of healing going to be doing their thing over those two days… but I didn’t […]

If I weren’t such a cheapskate and consigned to the ‘basic’ level of typepad I’d probably change the colour and design of my blog about now. I like a change every now and then and I reckon its about time.
What I have done is add a few new links in the ‘other blogs I read’ […]

Last night at our team meeting we were discussing a possible ‘name’ for our missional community.
After a year of being ‘that mob in Brighton’ we felt it was about time we cemented some sense of identity.
The criteria for a team name were:
…·         Describes us accurately in terms of identity and mission

…·     […]

Crap like this happens because we don’t take discipleship as seriously as church attendance.
Its a long article and there are few surprises - which ought to disturb us in itself - but here are a few quotes to whet your appetite:
Scandalous behavior is rapidly destroying American Christianity. By their daily activity, most "Christians" regularly commit […]

Tomorrow is Danelle’s big scrapbooking day… All day and then tomorrow night we have girls coming to sit in our lounge room and ’scrap’.
While the scrappers do their thing I think I might head out and do a bit of study.
This year I’m teaching a course for ACOM on biblical ethics and values, a […]

If there is anything that frustrates me as a leader in what is being called an ‘emerging church’ (I don’t call it that by the way) its the suspicion I often seem to encounter from those in more established churches, especially, (but not only) big churches.
I have hit it a few times recently and it […]

Today Danelle went to a Creative Memories workshop, from 9-9… so I have had the kids.
I don’t know how that expression makes you feel, (’had the kids’) but I love days like this with my kids. Brekky at McD’s, a movie, wander the shops, veg at home, down to the park… so it goes on.
Right […]

Today after taking some kids fishing in the morning I replaced the brake rotors on my car. When we had the brake pads done on holidays the mechanic told me the the rotors were ‘totally rooted’. I don’t think this is a technical term, but I understood what he meant…
So today I spent the afternoon […]

Matthew 13:47-14:12
"Or, God’s kingdom is like a fishnet cast into the sea, catching all kinds of fish. When it is full, it is hauled onto the beach. The good fish are picked out and put in a tub; those unfit to eat are thrown away. That’s how it will be when the curtain comes […]

I have just moved my office around and part of that move involved taking the desk out as I never use it. I always finish up with my laptop on my lap so a desk is really a pointless waste of space and a symbol of a past era.
Reading this makes me glad that we […]

Kim Beasley for PM?… How many attempts can one bloke have?… Crikey…
Mark Latham with pancreatitis… would he have had pancreatitis if he were PM? Would he have wanted to quit politics and give time to his family if he were in the top job?
Colin Barnett… why does this guy always come across so self righteous? […]

One of the top priorities for all of us here in Brighton is to be available to connect with people in the community in a whole heap of different ways.
Last week I ‘planned my year’ and allocated times to do different tasks related to Forge, our Brighton team and the coaching job. I figured if […]